Page 86 of Hunt the Dusk
But she watched them with bright eyes filled with intelligence and a new kind of hunger, and then her gaze flicked over their heads to me, and she smiled—a smile filled with secrets.
The spark left her eyes a moment later, and her body shrank to a regular size.
“What the fuck?” Hemlock bellowed.
The cold one roared and attacked.
Ordell leapt forward, intending to grapple it, but I beat him to it, using the last of my blessed energy to vault over his head and shove my sword into the cold one’s eye. As my blade slid in, fire punched me in the gut, and blood filled my mouth.
I coughed, spraying red.
“NO!”
I wasn’t sure who screamed. But there were hands on me, lifting me, touching me, pressing down on my torso. Ordell hovered over me, his face a mask of horror, and then he was shoved aside, and Ezekiel took his place, pressing his wrist to my mouth and yelling soundlessly at me.
Warm, sweet nectar filled my mouth, teasing me to drink.
Drink.
“Drink, dammit! Drink!”
I closed my eyes and drank and drank and…
Chapter 30
HEMLOCK
Ordell paces the library like a caged animal, whiskey glass in hand. “She could have died,” he says. “She could have fucking died.”
I blink away the image of Orina impaled by the cold one’s claws, her body limp and barely conscious in Ezekiel’s arms, and his screams of rage and pain as he begged her to drink from him.
“Yes, she almost died, but she didn’t,” I remind him. “She’s healing. It could take a couple of days, maybe more, but shewillwake up.” Ezekiel is feeding her his blood to speed up the process. She’ll wake eventually; all I have to do is remain calm, act as if none of this is a huge deal so that Ordell can feed off that vibe and not lose his shit. “What I want to know is who stopped the Raven from going to the chapter house.” Atlas swears he ordered a Raven to be sent, but the Raven never arrived at the chapter house. Padma has requested daily updates on Orina’s condition, going as far as to threaten to invade Branwood if we don’t comply. Meanwhile, they’ve gone onto high alert, patrolling the areas around the School of Creation to check formore cold ones, but I doubt they’ll find any because the cold ones have a secret.
They don’t exist on this plane.
Not unlessshesends them through.
“How are the triplets coping with it?”
A shadow passes across Ordell’s face. “They told me they fought them off with wooden bats until Orina arrived. A few of the other children confirmed it.” He meets my gaze, and a chill shoots up my spine.
I lower my glass. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Doesn’t it?” Ordell says softly.
Fuck. “Then we keep an eye on them. Watch for any…changes.”
“They’ll be twelve in a few months…”
“Then we’ll know…right?”
“Maybe.” He drains his glass and tops up. “I’ve made them promise not to tell their mother.”
“Do you think they’ll keep that promise?”
“They know how upset she’ll be if she finds out that instead of doing the sane thing and running away, they stayed and tried to fight the monsters.”
“Good point.”
